CFP: Early Modern Automata (9/15/06; collection)

full name / name of organization:

Wendy Hyman

contact email:

whyman@ithaca.edu

Early Modern AutomataEdited by Wendy Beth Hyman

Proposals sought for a new book of essays on Early Modern literary“automata”: inanimate objects of all kinds, brought to life on the stageor the page. While several studies have examined the role of hydraulics,pneumatics, and clockworks during the scientific revolution, this bookwill take a broader scope, looking at the incredible fantasies ofanimation that proliferated in an era poised between mysticism andempiricism. Essays on the engineering triumphs that thrilled spectatorsat court masques and Renaissance gardens are welcome, but equally welcomeare essays on the merely imagined automata of Renaissance literature: e.g.Spenser’s Talus, Ralegh’s girl of “snow and silk,” Shakespeare’s Hermione. What does it mean to be human? What is the relationship between spiritand matter, or soul and body? Although mimesis may be a goal of classicalaesthetics, how does one deal with the threat of art that is too real? Isit the logical culmination of human technology and imagination, or adangerous expression of hubris? The animated statues, machines, andsuccubi of the Renaissance inevitably prompt these and other philosophicalquestions, at the same time as they refract the era’s largerepistemological uncertainties and existential longings.

This collection will approach these heterogeneous issues by bringingtogether the perspectives of literary scholars, art historians, andhistorians of science and technology. I welcome essays on any of thesegeneral topics, particularly—although not necessarilyexclusively—addressing British and European automata c. 1500-1700.

If you are interested in contributing to the volume, please email an essaytitle, a 500-word proposal, and a brief CV by September 15th to:whyman_at_ithaca.edu.